1. Technical Field
The present disclosure pertains to the field of lighting devices and, more specifically, proposes an add-on smart controller for a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting device.
2. Description of Related Art
A longer lifetime is one of the most distinguishing features of LED lighting devices. However, most of the LED lighting devices in use today do not offer significant control functionality, and the newer LED lighting devices that do have control features that are built-in, making it impossible to change or upgrade the control functionality of these LED lighting devices. Thus, the only option to increase control functionality is to replace the entire lighting device. This is a very costly option, given that oftentimes the LED lighting devices themselves still have a long remaining lifetime. A more cost-effective solution, then, would be to increase the control functionality of the existing LED lighting device without replacing it. Examples would include using an add-on dimmer to give a non-dimmable lighting device a dimming function, employing an add-on remote controller to give a non-remote-controllable lighting device a remote control function, and using an add-on day-light-harvest controller to give a regular lighting device a day-light-harvest function (producing light output inverse proportional to the ambient day light). This present disclosure provides various embodiments of such an add-on smart controller for lighting devices.